1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the creation and editing of electronic documents and, more particularly, to the creation and editing of markup language documents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer from Microsoft Corporation and Netscape Navigator from Netscape Communications Corporation, provide support for the versatile and powerful markup languages and standards in use today, such as XHTML (eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language), Cascading Style Sheets, Document Object Module and scripting. These technologies allow software applications to be downloaded over the Web to a user's computer and run in the user's browser. To facilitate and promote the development of browser-compatible software applications, browser vendors typically implement and make readily available an Application Program Interface of standard routines, protocols and tools for use by application developers.
Many enterprises have recognized the commercial opportunities presented by browser-based applications. Among the new businesses that have taken advantage of the capabilities of the Web are printing service providers. Typically, these companies provide their customers with the ability to access the printing service provider's web site, download product templates and a product design program, and create a customized product in the user's browser.
One network-based product design system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,247,011 entitled “Computerized Prepress”. The patent discloses a document-authoring tool that is downloaded from a server and runs in the client browser. A markup language version of the product created by the client is uploaded to the server where it is processed by a translation program into a prepress file format.
Another system is disclosed in co-pending and co-owned U.S. application Ser. No. 09/557,571 entitled “Managing Print Lobs”, which is hereby incorporated by reference. The system discloses a downloadable editing tool that allows a customer to create and edit markup language documents in the customer's browser. The system makes a number of pre-designed product templates available for customer viewing, downloading, and customizing.
As is well known, the “copy-and-paste” and “cut-and-paste” functions provided by modern operating systems are useful in many circumstances for allowing a user to easily move or reproduce selected sections of text. When a copy or cut operation is performed by the user, the operating system stores the copied or cut information in a region of system memory commonly referred to as the system clipboard. The system clipboard is available to any application program running on the computer, allowing the user to transfer data either within a single application or between different applications.
However, the system clipboard does not provide adequate support for markup language documents. The clipboard function provided by current operating systems does not provide the necessary functionality to easily and efficiently move text within a markup language document or to insert text into a markup language document from another application. This deficiency in clipboard functionality has impaired and limited the usefulness of browser-based document creation programs, especially for users interested in creating and editing a document with more than a small amount of text. Therefore, a need exists for a system and method supporting the transferring of data into and within markup language documents being editing in a user's browser program.